


A Lesson in Desparation

by orphan_account



Series: Fill the Void [24]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Bandits & Outlaws, M/M, red dead redemption au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23511604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Jeremy and Ryan have been outlaws together for years. But with their luck running out and Pinkertons closing in around them, they have no choice but to trust a complete stranger who might offer them salvation.
Relationships: Jeremy Dooley/Ryan Haywood
Series: Fill the Void [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663750
Kudos: 32





	A Lesson in Desparation

The message came to them after a night in the saloon turned into a brawl. Jeremy and Ryan were meant to just be passing through, but a sour comment from one man sent Jeremy over the edge and tumbling out into the muddy streets where he could teach this man a lesson. Ryan had to drag him off the other man and they had to make a hasty retreat to their hotel room to get cleaned up and keep a low profile. The authorities did nothing. This town was hardly big enough to support a sheriff, but they were wanted men. Clearly their bounty posters hadn’t yet made it this far west yet.

“What did he say?” Ryan asked. He dipped a cloth in a shallow bowl of water and dabbed at the skin abrasions on his hands.

“Nothin’,” Jeremy said. He winced at the touch of the rough cloth and Ryan’s even rougher treatment. “Just flappin’ his gums.”

“You need to control yourself. We don’t need any more attention. Not after what happened in Vanhorn.”

“ _I know_ ,” Jeremy said. He didn’t need to be lectured like a child. What happened in Vanhorn was … regrettable. And entirely an accident. But when there was a man making lewd comments in Jeremy’s ear, calling him all manner of things he was not, insulting his integrity and it was a shitty scene on top of so many other shitty scenes that Jeremy couldn’t help but up and punch that man.

“You would’ve done the same,” he added and to that Ryan made no comment. Ryan would’ve done more than beat that man in the streets. And he knew it too.

There was a knock at the door, and the two jumped apart—Jeremy moving silently to stand against the way, hand at his hip, resting on his revolver; Ryan to the door with a finger at his lips. He rested his hand on the doorknob. “Yes?” he said.

“Letter for ya, sir,” a woman said. One of the few that worked in this establishment. “A man dropped it off for the desk and I was sent to deliver it.”

Chancing it, Ryan opened the door. Jeremy remained on standby. “What man?”

“Didn’t give his name, sir.”

Ryan took the letter and closed the door soon after. Jeremy let his posture drop and approached him. “What is it?” Ryan handed it to him and went back to cleaning up. Jeremy opened the note and read the scrawl.

_Strawberry. One week. Ask for Brandeen._

“You know any Brandeen?” Jeremy asked.

Ryan shrugged. “Can’t say I do.”

“What you think of this?”

Again he shrugged, leaving Jeremy to make his own decision, seeing as he was the only one who could read. They had only been in this town for an evening now, hadn’t had any conversations with nobody. Was someone watching them in the bar? Saw them come in, the pair of them, travel weary and worn and sitting off to the side with their liquor. Completely inconspicuous until some idiot couldn’t keep his mouth shut and pushed an already on edge Jeremy into jumping head first over a cliff.

“You think we should chance it?” he asked.

“Up to you,” Ryan said.

Meaning he didn’t trust himself to make a rational decision. Last time that happened, five people were dead and a fire racing down the streets of Vanhorn.

“Strawberry it is,” Jeremy decided. They had no other prospects and Pinkertons didn’t operate this subtly.

The next morning they left the town and made the long trip to Strawberry.

They’d been a pair for a long time now, making their names known as a fearsome pair of train robbers. From the east coast and further west into the untamed lands of the west. They led Pinkertons and bounty hunters on a dangerous journey that had most of them turning back and giving up. With Jeremy’s sharp eye and quick hand and Ryan’s all around skill and wit, they were certainly a fearsome pair. Until they robbed from the wrong man. Leviticus Cornwall. Oil and train magnet. They’d happened to rob a train he was on and with a string of large robberies on trains he owned, it could only be assumed he’d come after them. They just never expected to meet him in the flesh.

With a wealthy man after them and a veritable army of Pinkertons, west was their only option for escape. But with a high bounty on their heads and their funds running low—there was little to rob from in the untamed West—their only option was to either go their separate ways or find someone with as dubious morals as them. Perhaps this Brandeen was their shining light.

Separation was an option neither was willing to consider. They depended on each other far too much to ever go their separate ways. Jeremy could read, a skill not many had out this way. And while he was not fond of civilization, he could manage far better with people with Ryan by his side. Ryan, on the other hand, grew up feral. At least, that’s how he explained it. Grew up roughing it in the woods after his ma died. His pa nowhere to be found so he lived on his own in the woods until a chance encounter in the woods brought them together. They looked after each other. They were closer together than people could ever understand. Protective to the point of committing murder for one another. Match made in hell.

They rode into Strawberry one afternoon after an easy trip on the roads and through the back country. They hadn’t encountered bounty hunters in some time now and were enjoying the peace and quiet for once. It was nice not having to fear for their safety every moment of the day.

They hitched their horses up to the post office and headed inside to ask some questions as well as to see if bounty hunter posters of their likeness had been posted in the area.

“Brandeen you say?” the station clerk said. “Yeah, I heard of you. You might have luck looking up at the hotel just up the street.”

Ryan nodded and Jeremy said, “Thank you, sir.”

Ryan stuck close to Jeremy’s back. He was fidgety and flighty whenever they came across a town such as this. He had no taste for large settlements and preferred the open country. But their survival depended upon making a few acquaintances.

They entered the hotel as a pair. The hotel manager welcomed them into his fine establishment and fine it was. Too fine for Jeremy’s tastes however. He spoke with the man behind the desk and asked for a Brandeen.

“You gentlemen looking for me?”

They turned around and came face to face with a broad red headed woman.

“You Brandeen, ma’am?”

She shrugged. “Who’s to say? What brings you boys to Strawberry?”

“Received word that we were to meet a Brandeen here.” He felt Ryan bristle behind him, fingers twitching towards his revolver.

Then the woman smiled. “You’d like to follow me, then. Name’s Jack, by the way.”

Jeremy looked to Ryan, but Ryan remained impassive.

They followed Jack outside and gathered up their horses. They mounted up and followed her out of the town and into the tall woods. Far off the beaten path they came upon a small camp. Jack dismounted and crossed the area to where a man was lounging on a stack of crates, felt cap set on his face. She kicked the crates and the man startled badly.

“Gah, what in the—don’t you know it’s bad luck to wake a man when he’s sleepin’?” he said, looking up at Jack with her hands set firmly on her hips.

“Visitors,” she said, jerking her head back to where Jeremy and Ryan were still mounted and ready to ride if this turned out badly.

The man stood and fixed his cap. He had dark hair and a full beard. There were a few others of varying ages in the camp but they took little notice of the newcomers. The closer the man came, the more nervous Ryan became, tensing in his saddle, spooking his horse, and reaching for his gun. Jeremy reached out and squeezed his wrist tightly.

_Calm yourself._

“Look at you boys!” the man said, beaming up at them. “If I’d known the Scourges of Cornwall would come up into my camp, I would’ve threw a party.”

“You did know,” Jack said. “You just fell asleep.”

The man waved them off. “Name’s Geoff. This right here is our little family. Posse I should say.”

“What do you want then?” Jeremy said, cutting to the chase. Judging from the way many of them cleaned their weapons, he guessed that they were very much people of dubious morals.

“To extend an invitation into my _family_ of sorts. I heard you done well on those trains. Cornwall’s a mean piece of work, but he’s good for shaking at the ankles a bit. That money don’t ever stop falling. We’re the posse of Fakers, good sirs. Faking it at the high life because everyone else is too dumb to tell the difference between a man of high standing and a man such as myself. Now. Why don’t you take a load off and join us by the fire for a night? Share some stories. Have some fun. See where this goes.”

Jeremy looked to Ryan and simply waited. Ryan’s impassivity would not be a good enough answer this time. And surprisingly, Ryan spoke up first. “What’s cooking?”

Geoff smiled. “Why don’t you come on down and find out?”


End file.
